Father Ted wrote:The French & British authorities have different rules for granting visas, the French being less strict.
Wigan have certainly benefited from this.
Michael Dobson was granted a working visa to play in France but would not have been granted a British one as he hadn't played enough first team games in the NRL.
However, because he had been granted a visa to work in an EU country, and did work for Catalans, he was entitled to work in any EU country.
So he played for Wigan with a visa he would never have gained from the British authorities.
Just because the French grant an Aussie a visa to work there does not mean an Aussie can automatically work here! Where have you got that idea from? We do have restrictions on foreign nationals working here that can not be got around by spending six months grape picking in France or by playing a few games of RL. They amount to the same thing and clearly neither is how it is.
For an Ausssie to play here they need two things. They need to be eligible to play here by RFL rules and they need to be granted a working visa by the UK government not the French or any other EU governemt.
If they are not eligible to play here by RFL rules they won't get a visa.
To be eligible to play here the RFL have rules that say a player must have played a certain number of 1st grade games in recent history. Bird qualifies on that score but if I recall correctly Dobson did not.
However in Dobson's case he then played 1st grade games for Les Cats and so racked up 1st grade appearances.
What you can conclude is the French RL authorities do not have the same requirements on imported players to have played 1st grade as the RFL do (hence Dobson got a job with Les Cats) and once a player has played enough 1st grade games (as Dobson did with Les Cats) then our RFL will say he is eligible to play regardless of where he played those games. It is stupid given Dobson played his games in SL but that ia the way it seems to be.
Anyway regardless of all that what Dobsons convoluted route to Wigan has to do with Bird I don't know because the reason Bird was refused a visa was nothing to do with his qualifications as an RL player.
The fact the French have let him in and our government did not poses an interesting question as what happens when he turns up on our shores. The fact he has got job with Les Cat's should have nothing to do with it.
He should IMO be refused entry otherwise Bradford should be up in arms.
Dave
